Christmas Festivities

My parents must have been in heaven this Christmas as we had the whole family gathered together. It was so good to see Lindsey and Derrick who just got married about 6 months ago, as well as Clayton and Kara with their darling little girl, Ellery. My elder brother moved to the Netherlands about 4 months ago from living 10 minutes away from us, so we were so excited to have them back for Christmas. Cousins have definitely missed each other!

I failed at taking pictures of everything, but we enjoyed a nice dinner together. Our Christmas Eve traditions always involve acting out the Nativity story in Luke 2, chimes, and White Elephant.

Here are Gavin and Carter as wise men

Sammy as Mary and Dallin as Joseph

Drew was an angel, and Caleb wanted to be a shepherd.

Grandma and Grandpa's gift to Carter. He can't quite reach the pedals, but he still loves to ride it.

A new tradition we're going to continue. Matt and I played this game at a Christmas party we attended this year and loved it, so we introduced it to my family. A pair of dice are passed around; if someone rolls doubles, he/she has the opportunity to "dress-up" in winter clothes and attempt to open a present in the middle of the circle. It's a lot of fun!

Caleb and Carter on Christmas morning opening their stockings. Carter got a stuffed Elmo that he is quite attached to. It goes everywhere with him. A few weeks ago he caught some sort of stomach bug and the only things that made him happy were watching an Elmo movie we have or Tangled. He's especially obsessed with Tangled for whatever reason.

Caleb's big present this year. It's a little too complicated for him to build all on his own, so Matt and I have enjoyed creating marble runs. Caleb will sit there for quite awhile continuing to feed marbles and watch them go down.

Carter's big present was a little car ramp and cars.

More chunky Legos to make big towers.

Caleb and Dallin made a gingerbread house together one night, and then enjoyed eating it! I love Gavin's face in this picture. He seems mesmerized by all the yummy things in front of him!

It was so nice to spend so much time with family. There were lots of nights staying up late and playing games--our favorite thing to do. We did some Spades, Canasta, Bang!, Ticket to Ride, and lots of Dominion. We even went Black Light Miniature Golfing all together. So fun! I don't feel it was necessarily a relaxing Christmas vacation however. With finishing making Christmas projects, planning preschool, and church responsibilities weighing over me, there was no time to do my most favorite thing on a "vacation." Read! Everything else trumped reading time, but memories created with spending time with family are definitely more important!